Highway collapse could impact Oakland port traffic

Highway collapse could impact Oakland port traffic The weekend collapse of a 250-yard-long section of a Bay Area highway interchange is expected to cause severe traffic delays for commuters and will likely lead to delivery issues for trucks servicing the nearby Port of Oakland.
   A tanker truck explosion and subsequent fire Sunday morning caused the eastbound connector to Interstate 580 from the Bay Bridge to collapse onto the roadway connecting I-80 to I-880 and downtown Oakland. One piece of the three-lane connector fell following the fire, and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) officials surveying the damage Sunday feared a second damaged section might also collapse. The bridge, a major connection between Oakland and San Francisco, remains open.
   “The damage is significant, there will be disruptions to traffic, but it will be limited to the two ramps,” Will Kempton, director of Caltrans, told Reuters.
   Known as the MacArthur Maze, the three-highway interchange is at the Oakland approach to the Bay Bridge and sits less than a half-mile north of the Port of Oakland. More than 500,000 vehicles a day pass over the collapsed roadway. The lower blocked roadway is one of two highway egress point for trucks heading north from, and south into, the northern portion of the port. The main gate for the massive Maersk terminal complex at the port sits less than a half-mile from the interchange.
   Despite plans to reroute traffic around the collapse, the expected snarls of commuter traffic are likely to slow all roadway traffic in the area during peak hours.
   “Transportation, period, is so fragile,” Jim Allison, a spokesman for Bay Area Rapid Transit, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “If one network goes down, it’s tough for other agencies to pick up that burden. Even for a collaboration of agencies it's hard for all the agencies to figure out a plan.”
   The tanker, which was carrying a full load of vehicle-ready gasoline, overturned under the connector Sunday morning. The tanker exploded and burned, melting the supports of the roadway above, causing the collapse.
   The driver managed to escape the burning vehicle and hail a taxi to a local hospital, where he is in critical but stable condition with burns according to the California Highway Patrol.
   The CHP told the Bay City News that there is no word on when the roadway will be open, and it could be days if not months before traffic resumes as usual in the area.
   Ironically, Caltrans is using the property below the interchange to store equipment being used for work on a Bay Bridge construction project.
   Sections of the Bay Bridge collapsed during a 1989 earthquake, leading to a similar commuter problem until it was reopened 30 days later.